So...whats for dinner?
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Happy anniversary Freya!
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Happy anniversary Freya!
Susan, I've never made bagels. I'll have to try that sometime. Maybe after all things settle down.
I went out to the cemetery today. Mom's marker is in place...right next to dad's marker.
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Freya - happy wedding anniversary. Hope you are doing something special.
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Minus, I have BCBS’ Plan F Medigap policy—it doesn’t participate in Sliver Sneakers, but it does come with membership in GlobalFit, which offers discounted membership at several chains of gyms; L.A. Fitness made the most sense to me because it is ubiquitous. I paid an extra $10/mo for the MultiAccess membership, so I can drive over to its Ravenswood branch if I feel like a swim or a water aerobics class.
My new trainer considers walking, ellipticals, indoor cycling, etc to be good for warmups & cooldowns but the brain soon learns to adapt to them and “tell” the body to burn less fat if they’re used as aerobic exercise for too long without switching types of exercise. I’ll be doing mostly resistance training with light weights and bands, as well as balance (the goal of the latter being to get me more able to ride a real bike without 20” training wheels), posture improvement (moving my shoulders back to take stress off my arthritic c-spine), stretching long muscles (especially my chronically tight hamstrings, iliopsoas & IT bands and stopping incipient cording in its tracks so I can more carefully ration LE PT visits); and strengthening my core to protect my even more arthritic lumbar spine and avoid surgery or shots. Once I have gotten more flexible and balanced we can begin to work on building muscle, perhaps adding Pilates (my Bar Show choreographer/director is an instructor). My trainer says that as neither an athlete nor a recovering heart patient, cardio—either serious-training or rehab level—is not for me (it’s for both the young Lululemon crowd and those needing cardiac rehab), and that my endurance and aerobic capacity is pretty good—I’m not nearly as de-conditioned as I’d feared. Once we get the mechanical problems addressed we can begin to “step it up,” so to speak.
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Sandy - I don't like cardio either. I'll be interested to see what you think of the Silver Sneakers classes.
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My friend down in the far s. exurbs, who had to switch to an AARP Advantage plan when she moved from Chicago because her old Medigap plan wasn’t available in her new county, loves her Silver Sneakers classes. She’s had two angioplasties and then the BMX for DCIS & ADH last spring. If the classes are too easy, they might be a good warmup for my regular training session.
Tonight’s dinner was the ATK recipe for pan-seared Atlantic salmon (secret is to brine it for 15 min. and then putting it in a cold pan strewn with coarse salt & pepper functioning as both seasoning and “ball bearings,” bringing it up to medium heat). It was insanely wonderful, cleaving apart in perfectly barely-opaque slabs that were so rich it’s hard to believe the only fat came from the fish itself. I took a head of Romanesco and cut it into the little pyramid florets—seasoned with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika and roasted in a preheated 425 degree oven for 15 min. For the menfolk I added some brown basmati rice, but I decided against it for me, as I’d had my starch for the day. I sliced up the stem of the Romanesco, and might munch on them later if I get peckish again. Probably strawberries for dessert. Saved last night’s wine dinner leftovers—either Gordy will nosh on them tonight or I’ll have them for breakfast.
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Our YMCA has Silver Sneakers that is a good workout. I went to one session and it was a slightly toned down version of a regular exercise class with different name. Same teacher.
I do 30 min of cardio on treadmill or elliptical and upright bike. Perspiration drops off my body. I "sweat" like my dad did. My goal is to elevate bp into 140's.
Then I do weight machines. The total is about an hour. Then I have a cup of coffee and chat with other gym regulars.
My mother is having another amazing rebound. What a will to live!
It was good to get back to WW. I do so much better with structure. The cell phone app makes accountability easy. I realize how far I have veered from the guidelines of maintaining a desirable (for me) weight for my age and health goals. A few more pats of butter, bigger slash of evoo, bigger handful of grated cheese.
I wish Dh would opt to cut back with me but it's a personal choice. He probably put 2 oz blue cheese on his salad last night! To his credit, he does not sabotage my efforts.
I gambled on buying a box of Wild Caught Beer Battered cod at Sam's club. We tried a serving last night, two pieces each. Not good. The remainder will go into the garbage.
Otherwise I eat the same meals, modified and moderate in portion. We had ribeye steak and small boiled potatoes on Thurs. night. The previous night was pork piccata and creamed spinach.
My current challenge is a homemade poppyseed dressing. I zapped a bottle in the supermarket with the phone scanner and it was as much as an entree in food "cost." Not worth it
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Sandy, I'll have to check out what goodies my BCBS F plan offers. I really haven't looked - been too busy getting settled in my new home and town. You make such interesting meals. I find it not worth the effort to cook for myself most of the time. But even though I use prepared (frozen) meals, I am careful about what I eat. Salads, which I'd like more of, seem to cause my GERD (and gall bladder) to act up so I don't have them very often. Perhaps I just don't chew them thoroughly enough??
Happy Eating!
HUGS!
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My workplace has a company gym about 10 minutes from my office. If I go12 or more times a month, the $9 monthly fee is waived. They have 3 personal trainers and their time is free to us as well.
I go most every day and when I get done, I look like I've just climbed out of a pool.
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What a deal, Eric! We pay $70 a month for couple's membership at Y.
SIL with chickens is in town and brought eggs. Just enjoyed one on toast for breakfast. So delicious.😊
Pasta with homemade tomato sauce from freezer for dinner. Grated Romano. Bagged crunchy salad with kale. My portion will not have the sweet dressing in a packet. I may steam or roast asparagus.
Taking a day off from going to the hospital since other siblings are looking after my mother. Feels good to stay home and putter
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Probably will make something quick for dinner.
Friday's dinner is going to be a real challenge. For the first time in my life I am going to make Corned Beef and Cabbage for dinner. At this point it looks like II am going to throw everything in a Crockpot and let it cook that way. My mom never made this when I was growing up so I am very nervous about my first attempt
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Mommy - don't stress, it's pretty foolproof. If you use the slow cooker though, I'll caution you not to put the veggies in at the same time as the meat. They will be mush. I often cook the vegetables separately and add them to the meat at the end.
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Carole, My cookbook collection seems to have quite a number of poppy seed dressing recipes. What type of dressing are you looking for? Oil-Vinegar, creamy, with lemon? To dress fruit or greens?
I have never been into a gym. Don't plan to start now.
Lunch was supposed to be ham and cheese sandwiches with a smoked ham I bought and some homemade rye bread. Well, I forgot to take the bread out of the freezer due to a fast turnover and then the ham turned out not to be cooked. That is now dinner, with a vinegar-based cole slaw and I suspect that Mr. SMT will have a few chips. I had some tomato soup while Mr. SMT thawed some chili, all delayed by a guest who was checking in 2 hours early and then spent an hour in an Über getting to use from the airport. The airport should be about a 14 minute trip.
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Trying my hand at a spicy Thai chicken noodle bowl. Hoping it is as good as it looks! Wanted some sort of soup or stew as it's really chilly here today (50) with forecast of low around 30 and some snow flurries. This after several weeks of temps in the 60's and 70's. Life in the South.
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Susan, the poppyseed dressing is for salad greens. I should look into my recipe book collection.
Corned beef and cabbage sounds really good.
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Ain’t it the truth, HH!
One of the reasons I probably won’t do WW is their misplaced emphasis on reducing dietary fat, and their recommendations of higher-glycemic carbs than anyone flirting with metabolic syndrome has any business ingesting. Only thing I agree with them about is fiber & water. I lost the most weight, and kept it off longer, on low-carb/unrestricted (though not wildly so) fat & protein, and both my PCP and MO agree that’s the route to which I need to return. (And it makes Bob happy because we can go out to steakhouses and seafood joints). I realize that between the bc, GERD, and alcohol calories I need to start treating wine with my meals as a very occasional thing—and stop wondering “what can I cook that’s a good match for this wine?” Will have to get my resveratrol in a lower-carb, lower-calorie way. (Certainly not from fruit juices—they’re even higher in sugar).
My PCP warned me that exercise will do less for weight loss than will even diet alone. Nonetheless, the stronger I get and the more muscle that replaces fat, the more the more my food will be converted into glycogen to be stored as muscle fuel rather than into fat to be stored in my belly, butt & boobs. And there are studies showing that the activity of exercise is more beneficial to preventing ER+ recurrence than is reduction either of weight or stored fat. The more I move, the smoother my joints work even if they hurt at first. Use it or lose it, I guess.
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Peggy - hope you'll have luck finding coverage for Silver Sneakers in Washington. My friends here who have BCBS medigap found that it wasn't covered.
Happy - love the Mother Nature post. Ain't it the truth? Houston's been going from highs of 85 back to 65. Back & forth. One night I'm glad I still have the heated throw tossed over on the side of my bed. The next night I'm throwing off even a sheet.
Carole - so glad to see your Mother is on the rebound.
Freya - you really should share your latest aversion to sugar syrup & pears on this food thread.
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Carole, for that, the two most promising are in my cookbook collection are:
Silver palate, Poppy-seed dressing, page 222, and Joy of Cooking 1997 Poppy seed honey dressing.
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Happy Belated Birthday, Carole! And I'm relieved to learn about your mother's rebound. She is quite a strong woman!
We just returned from a week in NJ (with a stop in CT last night to help my stepmother update some tech thing....obviously I was not the helper!). Today I awoke with a sore throat and am hoping that I have not contracted the low grade virus that DGD carried around all week. Thanks for the well-wishes for my daughter-in-law. I forget if I shared....her open heart procedure was a success, with the large tumor resected, and the couple feeling so relieved that they dodged a giant bullet. She is now supposed to be resting but the house was like Grand Central and while we dealt with all the food and flower deliveries, meals, etc, she had way too may guests (good for her spirits....bad for rest requirements!) Her parents will take over now...and I think it was actually really hard for them to make emotional space to have us there, so THEY will be relieved at our departure, if exhausted by all there is to manage along with his progressing lung disease.
Our weather is also crazy, with a sizeable snowstorm predicted for Tuesday after bitter cold temps today, and 70 degrees the week before.
All the talk about gym efforts has me actually itching to get back there. I have been avoiding with my back pain. So hopefully this week will be better, and I can get back into form. I do notice how my body slips back into old form and function (not in a good way) when I am away from an exercise routine.
Last night we picked up pizza and a Greek salad in Shelton CT to have at my stepmother's. It was pretty good.
Tonight we are eating out at a convenient restaurant near the theatre before seeing "The Curious Incident.....", a Christmas gift from DS1 ans DDIL. Except for having to go out in the unbearable cold and wind, I'm looking forward to it.
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It's been a long time since I've belonged to a gym. DH and I joined up after we quit smoking and kept at it for a couple years or so then it got to be a burden, so quit. I'll get back to walking now that the weather is trying to improve. Patch loves to go for walks and we've been doing short ones since I'm a tad out of shape after this winter. When it gets warmer yet then we'll walk our park. It's good exercise. There are different length circuits in it, all with hills. We generally do about a half mile plus extra blocks getting there and back. That works for us.
Sandy, I think you're right on the approach to dieting - from what I've read. What a different idea - figuring out dinner around the wine. Not me. I drink whatever moves me and is in the fridge - doesn't matter what I'm eating. But you know your wines and I sure don't.
My DIL's mother stopped by today. I'd already called her earlier and we have a date for lunch next week. She lost her hubby New Year's Eve and is still coping with all the paperwork etc but is doing well. Since we both had years of caregiving our husbands, I was able to assure her that the feeling relieved of that burden is very normal. We had a great talk. It's good to like this extended family. And why isn't there a "name" for daughter-in-law's mother? Or son's mother-in-law? English doesn't do very well on names for relatives.
The rain has arrived.
HUGS!
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The NYT’s Eric Asimov had an article last week on how to buy wine: think of it as food, i.e., an ingredient in your meal.
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Peggy - interesting that I originally started going to a gym when I stopped smoking. I started with Curves and graduated to Bally then dropped out for awhile when they sold to LA Fitness & became less user friendly. Now that I'm more or less retired, I can take the classes in the middle of the day.
My approach to diet and wines and exercise and life in general is MODERATION. I refuse to completely give up anything that I enjoy (except smoking and that was 10 years ago). I never gave up butter, and the circle turned so now it's good again. Life's too short to be unhappy all the time, and for sure BC reminded all of us of that fact. The only thing where I don't employ moderation is reading. Another benefit of retirement - I can read all day if I get hooked on a book.
That said, I agree with Carole that I do better with some structure, and with Lacey that I feel better when I don't overindulge & slip out of form. Hmmm. Saturday at 4:45 and a dreary, rainy day. The sun is well over the yard arm where some of you live so I think I'll open a bottle of red wine.
Hope that Bedo is OK. We haven't heard a thing since she trekked off to the wilds of Iowa.
p.s. - Susan - so good to have you posting.
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Bagels are now retarding in the fridge. My daughter came to get her tray of doughy goodness. She will serve her bagels at a small brunch she is throwing in the morning. Best friend from college is in town with her wife, a couple of local close friends, and her own family. I went with a "middle" size. Not large [the way most places make them these days] nor mini; something in between which is more the size I remember from my childhood in Forest Hills. Settled on 110grams per bagel or 3.5 ounce. It has gotten really cold out there and I am trying to overcome my laziness to get to the store to buy some smoked salmon.
Pat, I am still shocked by your DIL's medical foray. I expect that you are right about her parents since that is their home too. Adding another family dynamic adds complications and as you say, we all take up emotional space. PM me your Dana Farber schedule. I am now there every single bloody Tuesday [well almost.] Maybe our schedules will overlap?
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The best gyms to which I ever belonged were Lakeshore A.C. and Galter Life Center—and eventually, parking problems made them untenable for me, due to their distance and difficulty using public transit to get to them. Lakeshore was great—massages, a snack bar, full pool & spa, classes & meetings, child care, lots of Nautilus machines (and free guidance in using them). But scoring a parking spot was difficult—and part of the lot had freight train tracks running through it, with trains coming through maybe twice a week but unscheduled, on only 15 minutes’ notice before the tow trucks came. Pretty hard to get out of the pool, dry off, get dressed (two floors down) and out to the car in time to move it, so I was towed twice at great expense. I realized it was time to surrender my membership when I found myself having to walk three blocks in the ice & snow to get there after parking. I joined Galter, which was almost as nice and attached to Swedish Covenant Hospital, but it too suffered from inadequate (and pay) parking and even more difficulty (3 buses) getting there. Nonetheless, I tried…until I tore my ACL on vacation and had to let my membership lapse; I reactivated a year later, only to suffer a badly broken leg at the hands of a spaced-out driver. They let me out of my contract.
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KB - nice to see you at the kitchen table.
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Just to let you all know that I will be going on vacation to the Pacific Northwest next week. I expect to spend two weeks in Sequim, Washington & Newport, Oregon - both on the water - eating Dungeness crab and every cold water fish that I can find. I won't have access to the internet, so I'll have to catch up with your culinary delights the end of the month. Not to mention posting how much weight I've gained. (ugh)
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I like cooking with wine.....................sometimes it even makes into the food.
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Crab in Sequim, fresh oysters in Newport, great salmon everywhere you’re going. Yum!!!! (Lived in Seattle ’71-78, haven’t been back since ’99, miss it so much).
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Ha ha Freya, I'm just the opposite. I cook with wine but don't drink it.
Pepper steak tonight. We've had a lot of rice lately, so buttered noodles instead. I also made a custard pie for dessert.
Good news on your mom Carole!
Have a great time Minus! Eat crabs for me!
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Minus,
Have a brilliant time! Enjoy every crustacean and bi-valve delight, and do make sure to have salmon about 27 different ways!
*susan*
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